Exertion Quotes

• A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

  John Stuart Mill

  Freedom, War, Military

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• The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.

  Blaise Pascal

  Inspirational, Strength, Wisdom

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• Nothing happens by itself... it all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.

  Ben Stein

  Responsibility, Way, Happens

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• With every exertion, the best of men can do but a moderate amount of good; but it seems in the power of the most contemptible individual to do incalculable mischief.

  Washington Irving

  Men, Evil, Individual

  Washington Irving (1859). “The works of Washington Irving”, p.402

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• Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

  B. C. Forbes

  Motivational, Adversity, Challenges

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• The progress of the American Revolution has been so rapid and such the alteration of manners, the blending of characters, and the new train of ideas that almost universally prevail, that the principles which animated to the noblest exertions have been nearly annihilated.

  Mercy Otis Warren

  Character, Ideas, Progress

  Mercy Otis Warren (1805). “History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution: Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations”, p.4

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• Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.

  John Ruskin

  Country, Sea, Bridges

  John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.138, University of Virginia Press

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• I am content with nothing, restless and ambitious... and I despise myself for the vanity, which formed half the stimulus to my exertions. Oh would that I were one of those plodding wise fools who having once set their hand to the plough go on nothing doubting.

  Thomas Huxley

  Wise, Thinking, Vanity

  "Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest". Book by Adrian Desmond (p. 84), 1997.

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• Advertising mourishes the consuming power of men. It sets up before a man the goal of a better home, better clothing, better food for himself and his family. It spurs individual exertion and greater production.

  Winston Churchill

  Home, Men, Goal

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• Those 40 or 50 national correspondents who had followed Kennedy since the beginning of his electoral exertions into the November days had become more than a press corps - they had become his friends and, some of them, his most devoted admirers.

  Theodore White

  Friends, November, Admirer

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• How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Literature, Rational, Vindication

  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ch. 3 (1792)

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• Look around, and you see everywhere the exertions and acts of individuals restricted, regulated, or promoted, on the principle of the common welfare.

  Friedrich List

  Principles, Looks, Common

  Friedrich List, Erwin von Beckerath, Karl Goeser, Friedrich Lenz, Edgar Salin (1931). “Schriften, Reden, Briefe: Grundlinien einer politischen Ökonomie”

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• Congress needs strong parties, but it also needs the capacity to deal with budget and entitlement challenges that are likely beyond the reach of pure partisan exertion.

  David Price

  Strong, Party, Challenges

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• Truth and mercy require the exertion - never the suppression, of man's noble rights and powers.

  Gerrit Smith

  Men, Rights, Noble

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• In England, the profession of the law is that which seems to hold out the strongest attraction to talent, from the circumstance, that in it ability, coupled with exertion, even though unaided by patronage, cannot fail of obtaining reward.

  Charles Babbage

  Law, Rewards, England

  Charles Babbage (1830). “Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes, by Charles Babbage (1830). To which is Added On the Alleged Decline of Science in England, by a Foreigner (Gerard Moll) with a Foreword by Michael Faraday (1831).”, p.13

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• There is also a perfection of degrees, by which a person performs all the commands of God, with the full exertion of all his powers, without the least defect. This is what the law of God requires, but what the saints cannot attain to in this life.

  Charles Buck

  Law, Perfection, Degrees

  Charles Buck (1807). “A Theological Dictionary”, p.238

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• Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Work, Struggle

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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• To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.

  John Ruskin

  Expression, Imperfection, Vitality

  John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.184, University of Virginia Press

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• The half minute which we daily devote to the winding-up of our watches is an exertion of labour almost insensible; yet, by the aid of a few wheels, its effect is spread over the whole twenty-four hours.

  Charles Babbage

  Half, Four, Wheels

  Charles Babbage (1841). “On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures”, p.38

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• Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by a dint of hard work.

  Anna Pavlova

  Success, Hard Work, Initiative

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• Knowledge is not a passion from without the mind, but an active exertion of the inward strength, vigor and power of the mind, displaying itself from within.

  Ralph Cudworth

  Passion, Knowledge, Mind

  Ralph Cudworth, Thomas Birch (1838). “The True Intellectual System of the Universe: Wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted, and Its Impossibility Demonstrated. A Treatise on Immutable Morality; with a Discourse Concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper: and Two Sermons on 1. John 2: 3, 4, and 1. Cor. 15: 27”, p.423

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• Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.

  Robert Burns

  Determination, Character, Adversity

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• I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Two, Mind, Legs

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.85, Graphic Arts Books

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• I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Edgar Allan Poe (1980). “The Unknown Poe: An Anthology of Fugitive Writings”, p.4, City Lights Books

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• Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.

  Florence Nightingale

  Nursing, Nurse, Expectations

  Florence Nightingale (1992). “Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not”, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

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